For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 138

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 138

“We have a serious problem.”

The red-haired Knight approached me with a grave expression.

“I need someone to train with in swordplay, but no one will partner with me.”
“Why?”
“Who knows? Maybe it’s because I’ve been breaking all the swords in half? Your Majesty, would you be willing to spar with me?”

I found myself unable to refuse such a brazen request. Kevenriak Heteroven nodded at the Knight’s words. It wasn’t until about a week had passed that I realized the swordplay training was merely a pretext.

“The waist, the wrist, and oh, the head too.”
“…You….”
“No, in situations like this, you should target the opposite side. Underhanded? I’ll be happy to hear such complaints in the afterlife.”

Training, my foot. The Knight clearly wanted to play the role of instructor over me, despite our age difference of merely one year. Though I felt trapped in his hobby, the Knight was remarkably strong and exceptionally skilled with the blade. After each training session with him, I could tangibly feel my own abilities improving.

Kin Setric (■■■)
Age: 14
Gender: Female
…
Occupation: Apprentice Knight
Specialties: Hunting (A), Cooking (A), ■■(■), ■■(■■)
…

“What is this? Some sections aren’t readable.”
“They aren’t?”
“Why would you keep something like this around? Why not just kill her? Or better yet, use her deception about her gender as leverage and make her one of our subordinates. Turn her into an obedient dog. Kekeke.”
“….”

An existence that even the Grimoire of Magic regarded with suspicion.
Though Kevenriak Heteroven knew that Kin had hidden her true gender to enter the Imperial Knights, he had never once spoken of it aloud.

“Your Majesty, have you ever tried rabbit meat?”
“No.”
“Then Your Majesty has wasted your life. I’ll bring some for you next time.”

At some point, she naturally came to stand beside the Fourth Prince.
Through this, Kin gradually came to know Kevenriak better.
Despite being an Imperial Prince, Kevenriak wore clothes worse than a commoner’s, and for food, he would hunt small animals or steal ingredients from the Kitchen to prepare his own meals.

‘What kind of place is this Imperial Palace that it neglects an Imperial Prince like this?’

Before coming to the Imperial Palace, Kin had lived alone with her father in a place far removed from any Village. She could not possibly know the circumstances of Heteroven.
Suspicion took root.

“Hey, fellow trainee. Why does the Fourth Prince receive different treatment than the other members of the Imperial Family? Do you know anything?”
“Gasp. The legendary swordmaster Kin is asking me a question…?”
“Don’t joke around.”
“I don’t know all the details, but it seems he fell out of favor with the Empress from birth.”
“The Empress?”
“Well, his mother, the late Empress Consort, was born a wandering dancer. They say he inherited base blood mixed with noble Imperial blood. That’s why the Fourth Prince is treated like a…”

Thwack.
As Kin gradually learned more about the Fourth Prince, she happened upon a sight that revealed what Heteroven and the Imperial Palace had done to him.

It was deep in the night.

“I didn’t know Your Highness was learning swordplay.”

The burly servant mocked Kevenriak, swinging the sword in his hand several times. To Kin’s eyes, his movements looked like nothing more than a child’s toy play.

“Do you not need a teacher, Your Highness?”
“…”
“I have some skill in combat. To win a fight, one must first build a sturdy body. Like this!”

Crack!
The servant’s fist, as large as a pot lid and thrown with all his might, drove into the abdomen of thirteen-year-old Kevenriak. Watching the Imperial Prince collapse, the servants gathered in the room snickered.

“…”

Kin held her breath in the Corridor, witnessing the scene. The meat skewer she had secretly roasted from the Kitchen rolled across the floor of the Separate Palace Corridor.

“Oh my. The Imperial Prince has fallen over.”
“Heteroven’s little sun is lying on the ground…! We shall help you up, Your Highness.”
“….”
“Now that you’re up, we’ll resume the lesson.”

Thwack! Crack!
Two people held the Imperial Prince from either side, while a third mercilessly pummeled him like a training straw dummy, showing no resistance. The six people standing nearby watched the scene with enjoyment—the kind of brutality that even strangers would protest against.
…Perhaps they refrained from stopping it precisely because they knew him.

‘Why.’

Why was he simply enduring this?
I couldn’t understand why Kevenriak Heteroven was accepting this passively.
Even if he had fallen out of favor with the Empress, he was still of the Imperial Family. There was no reason for him to suffer at the hands of commoners. It wasn’t as though he lacked the strength. Kevenriak was more than strong enough to defeat them easily.

“I don’t understand. Does he endure until his ears ring? Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Of course it hurts. But if he resists, the violence only gets worse, and there’s no one around except the perpetrators, so he just endures it.”
“What does that matter? The perpetrators are ordinary people. The victim is an S-rank Awakened.”
“Because he thinks it’s natural.”
“Why would it be natural? That’s domestic violence.”
“Think about it. Just as the Guild Master believes parents shouldn’t hit their children, there are people who believe they deserve to be beaten. No one ever taught them that was wrong.”

How long had this violence been repeated? To those in that room, the sight of a group assaulting one person seemed disturbingly familiar.

“It seems he fell out of favor with the Empress from birth.”

The Fourth Prince, cast out by the Empress before he even knew right from wrong. He accepted his role as victim with apparent naturalness.

“….”

My mind went cold.
Kevenriak, these people….

‘Don’t forgive them.’

It was as much a command to myself as anything else. For reasons I couldn’t explain, rage surged within me.
I couldn’t forgive them.

“Sigh… the air’s getting cold. Is it already this late? I got so absorbed.”
“This habit of mine, I tell you. Our Fourth Prince should live long and well. How could I bear it if he weren’t here?”
“…Do you remember when you started?”

Dawn, before the sun broke the horizon.
Servants and maids were walking through the dim corridors, returning to their quarters.

“I’m not sure when it began.”
“How would I remember? Oh, but I do recall this—Carol laid the Fourth Prince down when he wasn’t even a year old and struck him. She said listening to the child cry relieved her stress. I thought Carol would be executed for assaulting the Imperial Family, but she lived on perfectly fine as a maid in the Separate Palace for thirteen years.”
“Are you being sarcastic? You’ve enjoyed this game thanks to me.”
“Which is why our Fourth Prince is such a gracious man. Untouchable Heteroven… but who are you?”

Red hair gleamed in the moonlight.
A boy in an apprentice knight’s uniform. The servants and maids who met his eyes, brimming with killing intent, were seized by the primal terror of death. Cold sweat drenched their bodies, and their hearts pounded with fear.

“K-Knight…”
“We were just… that is…”
“P-Please spare us…”

They barely managed to beg for their lives with stammering words—

“Why would I?”

The sharp glint reflected off the blade was the last thing they saw. Not a single scream escaped before it ended in silence. The patrolling knights discovered the bodies shortly after. A commotion nearly erupted, but an apprentice knight conducting dawn training had apprehended the culprit.
It was shortly after that the Knights on patrol discovered the corpses. A commotion nearly broke out, but an apprentice Knight who was conducting dawn training caught the culprit.

“Well done, Kin. The Empress Consort’s jewels were found among the dead servant’s belongings.”
“Well done, Kin. They say they found the Empress Consort’s jewels among the belongings of the dead servant.”

Kin walked with familiar steps toward the Separate Palace.
Kin moved with familiar steps toward the Separate Palace.

“Your Majesty.”

It was a life he had started to escape the void. Though he was an apprentice Knight of the Imperial Knights, there was no way he could have loyalty toward the Emperor of Betuzhenia, who lacked even the slightest skill.

“I will become Your Highness’s sword.”

For the first time, she chose her own master. I will stand by your side.
Kevenriak accepted her as his knight.
Kin became the Fourth Prince’s only confidant.
Kevenriak’s soul was being consumed by the Grimoire of Magic, yet he conversed with Kin as though nothing were amiss.
When early winter arrived, Kevenriak would say something as he gazed upon the white flowers blooming in the Separate Palace Courtyard.

“This flower resembles you.”
“…Is that a compliment?”
“I don’t know. I simply think of you whenever I see it.”
“Then I shall take it as one. How kind of you to think of me, Your Highness.”

It was the year Kevenriak turned twenty.
Together, she transformed the Imperial Palace into a sea of blood. She watched as he, drenched in crimson, exhaled languidly and settled upon the throne.
Time flowed onward once more.

“A marriage to the Vivian Asperada, you say?”
“The Duke submitted the proposal.”
“I heard the Lady has awakened. How fortunate.”
“Do you truly believe that, Kin?”

It was the year Vivian awakened. At twenty-two, the tyrant he had become asked her with his beautiful face whether she truly thought it fortunate.

“…Yes.”

Only then did Kin realize that her heart had transformed into a different emotion without her knowing. It took so long to recognize because it was a feeling she had not experienced in far too many years.
Ah, I love you. Yet the years we spent together had cemented our positions immovably in place.

“You lack strength, which is disappointing.”

Kevenriak was a tyrant whose soul was consumed by the Grimoire of Magic, and I was his only confidant at his side. I thought even that was enough.

“If you say so, then that must be true.”

The Emperor, who had forgotten all emotion, occasionally showed his smile to her alone.
Ando Hwa had endured despair far greater than this countless times.
By this point, she called it happiness.

「The Emperor’s knight stood before a tomb.
It was a desolate grave without a single headstone.」

“….”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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